I think it takes a little bit of guts to share your income and expenses openly with the world. But that said, I think there is value for both of us in reading this post. I will do a similar post every month.
Listed below is a detailed display of all income and expenses for the month of September 2016. Let me know what you think!
This was a rougher month for us, believe it or not, with pretty high expenses and lower rental income, resulting in a savings rate of just over 20%. Of course that is great for some standards, but we are trying (like all of you!) to really pursue FI, work very hard, and do the very best we can. So...very thankful, but not satisfied necessarily.
Like this month's passive income report, which details my dividends and rental income received, etc., this month had a lot of highs and lows on the income/expenses side of the house as well. The highlights are below:
Income:
1) Income was offset this month by a negative $471 paid in repairs for my Missouri rental property (essentially, $471 LESS received on the income side, as another way to look at it). That was unfortunate, but I already detailed those expenses in my passive income report. On the positive side, I started my new 'side gig' job, and earned $285 from those efforts, which was nice (hence why I will be blogging less frequently until January). And it was great to have that begin this particular month to help offset the losses from the rental. In general I don't expect much more than $200 or so per month from this endeavour, so I will definitely take it!
2) I'll continue to explain the 'lending club sales' - like I stated originally in June's report, I am unwinding my Lending Club investment as quickly as I can. So whenever I get "cash available to withdraw" from that account, I transfer it and count it as 'income.' This number will eventually get smaller and smaller and run out, but I can only get small amounts back as the loans are repaid, and it's great to receive!
3) Dividends were great, as the "3, 6, 9, and 12" months have several of my mutual funds paying out in my portfolio. Overall, not a bad month at all for Passive Income, and an ok month as well for regular/other income.
Expenses:
1) On the other side of the equation of course, is Expenses. It really doesn't matter how much you make if you spend it all! This month we had a lot of expenses. Both of our cars needed repairs, which resulted in $412 in Auto costs, and unfortunately I do not think we're done yet. We also had high grocery costs ($606), which I can't explain because we really are buying the cheaper brand stuff, using coupons, etc. Still think there is room for improvement here.
2) We also had $630 in 'Everything Else' - the items I don't have a budget for specifically. $300 of this was for Duke Basketball Season Tickets (jackpot!), and several other larger items (textbooks, conference fees, uber rides, etc). Frustrating at times, but very thankful we've got a system to at least monitor these, and we continue to have a 'positive' remainder at the end of the month thanks to greater inflows. We're 4/4 with having more income than expenses since Passive Income Dude was launched.
In summary, I managed to have a positive difference of ~$2100 this month. Very cool! Unfortunately I still have family debt and some credit card debt (details here, in Goals), so I definitely didn't "feel" the extra yet. It went straight to paying down those items. Eventually! With this month added to our savings rate, we're now at 33% saved per month for the year.
What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts below.
Thanks for reading!
Passive Income Dude
It's good you are breaking down your budget and analyzing where you could improve on the expenses. While it's true that many expenses will fluctuate from month to month, getting a hold of and eliminating extra expenses, even at the grocery store, can really make a dent in adding more to your savings. Our family continually watches for sales and often shop at wholesale clubs to save more money.
ReplyDeleteKendrick @ RPM Long Beach